The Book of Cernunnos is Now Available

The Book of Cernunnos, the new devotional anthology dedicated to the Lord of the Animals – and the God of many other things – is now available.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Cernunnos-John-Beckett/dp/0988900971/

Who is Cernunnos? For some, he is the Horned God of Wicca. For others, he is the Lord of the Animals and the Lord of the Hunt. Still others see him as a God of Liminality and of the Underworld.

Yet for all our ideas about Him and experiences of Him, we know very little about Cernunnos from history. His name is recorded only once, on the Pillar of the Boatman, a Latin and Gaulish sculpture near Paris that dates to the early first century CE. Many of us believe it is Cernunnos who is depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron, but we have no way to know for sure.

This lack of history and lore has done nothing to keep Cernunnos from becoming one of the most popular deities in modern Paganism.

And now He has His own devotional anthology.

Jason Mankey and I edited The Book of Cernunnos and wrote some of the entries, but it’s the work of 32 contributors: writers, artists, poets, and ritualists. It fills 189 pages.

Part 1 is “History and Theology” – we don’t know much about how Cernunnos was seen and worshipped in ancient times, but we know a little. More importantly, we know how Cernunnos has come to be seen and worshipped in the modern world.

Part 2 is “Meeting Cernunnos” – stories of how people here and now first encountered Cernunnos and came to understand him.

Part 3 is “Experiencing Cernunnos” – stories of people’s love and devotion for Cernunnos.

Part 4 is “Poetry” – suitable for meditation, contemplation, reading as devotion, or just enjoyment.

Part 5 is “Rituals” – two rituals to meet and honor Cernunnos.

The Book of Cernunnos is published by ADF Publishing, and we’d like to thank ADF – especially Chronicler Manny Tejeda Moreno – for all the work in turning a series of Word documents into a book. It’s printed on demand by Amazon. Print-on-demand technology is great for specialized works like devotional anthologies, which simply don’t have enough volume for a traditional publisher to take on.

Jason and I have both been followers of Cernunnos for many years, and we thought we knew a lot about Him. And then we started reading the submissions for this book, and we realized that He has made Himself known to many different people in even more different ways than we had imagined. And yet there’s a common thread running through the book that makes it clear that for all our different experiences, we are all experiencing Cernunnos.

Here are the people who helped create The Book of Cernunnos.

Amara Firebird
Asa West
Ashley Dioses
Charlie Bondhus
Christopher Wallace
Creel Unbelove’d
Damh the Bard
Emily Carter
Eva Leenknegt
Hana Russel
Ivo Dominguez, Jr.
Jason Mankey
Jay Clark
Jean (Drum) Pagano
Jennifer Lawrence
John Beckett
Katelyn Willis
Kay Bell
Kerry Purdy
Kirk Thomas
Kris Hughes
Maxine Miller
Morgan Milburn
M.X. Petrovich
Ravn Thor
Rick de Yampert
Sarah Bernard
Seviryn Hemlock
SezzaJai Sykes
Steven Posch
Taryn Noelle Kloeden
Woody Fox

We are grateful for all the contributions to The Book of Cernunnos. We hope they will help you learn more about Cernunnos, and to experience him for yourself.